What’s Happening to the 2013 Halloween Season? Where’s All the Scares??

Okay, faithful readers. I need you all to chime and check in on this phenomena we’re experiencing this year. Around my house we’re not feeling what’s going on because I have the house overly decorated with scary shit and there’s always a horror film playing. But in the theaters there’s a distinct lack of horror films being released this Halloween season. What the hell is going on? And it’s not just a lack of theatrical releases. There’s a noticeable void of horror films and horror-themed films playing on cable as well. Last weekend I was surfing through our pay channels and the scariest thing on any of them (I get five pay channels free of charge due to U-Verse really screwing up our installation) was THE CABLE GUY with Jim Carey. If you’ve seen it you know how horrifying it is!!

The upcoming October 18, 2013 release of CARRIE is the only national theatrical release on the normally crowded season schedule. And what about the greatly timed pre-Halloween October 25, 2013 weekend? There’s NO HORROR RELEASES SCHEDULED for that weekend. What the fuck??

We’re still going to get some horror releases this month, but most of them will be limited releases and video-on-demand horror films. NOTHING LEFT TO FEAR opens this Friday in a very limited theatrical release and VOD platform; ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE, a film made in 2006, is getting a very limited theatrical release on October 11, 2013; HAUNTER, starring Abigail Breslin, is getting a very limited released on October 18, 2013; and also on October 18, 2013 we’ll be getting BIG ASS SPIDERS, by Mike Mendez. Sure BIG ASS SPIDERS sounds fun, but it also sounds like a movie that would be right at home airing on the SyFy channel.

So why do you think we’re seeing a void in horror releases in the 2013 Halloween season? I have my thoughts but I wanna hear from you.

7 Responses to What’s Happening to the 2013 Halloween Season? Where’s All the Scares??

the last several years the number of horror movies being release at theaters or on Cable has been dwindling, luckily I have a huge collection start from the 30s up to today, so just I continuously change DVD’s LOL. at the moment Circus of blood is on, which will be followed by The haunting.

AMC is to busy trying to build up excitement for the walking dead to show movies, good luck a year between seasons gives me plenty of time to lose interest. TCM will show a few on Fridays, and Scy FY has been showing quite a few lately tonight how ever is Ghost hunters, gag.

Lots of great insight, JoKelly!! To Hollywood, horror films are profitable BUT they need to be made cheap & they have to be watered down & at the most, PG13. It’s sad.

I’m with ya on AMCs THE WALKING DEAD. I completely lost interest in it after season 2. It got waaaaay too soap opery for me. The premier ep of AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN was fantastic & I’m eager to see where it goes. They’re definitely pushing the envelop with that show.

And for the record, I hate every single ghost hunting show out there on every single channel. They are all obvious staged bullshit & it’s annoying to see people taking those shows for real!!!

I guess Carrie is gonna do very well! I think it’s not so much that people don’t want to see horrormovies anymore but that the studios don’t want to make them. Somewhere along the line they got the idea that only PG-13 movies sell. By the way, i have decorated too! I have this deal with my local abortion clinic that i get all year’s dead fetuses to hang everywhere on the outside of my house (I put LED’s in them!) In return i have to make an effort to impregnate as many women as i can! What a deal!!!

I don’t know if it’s so much that studios don’t wanna make horror films. Horror films generate A LOT of revenue. Correction; horror movies made on tight budgets make lots of money. The PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise, THE CONJURING, the INSIDIOUS franchise … these films financially perform A M A Z I N Gly!!

Mmm… Are those movies you mention horrormovies…? Aren’t they really PG-13 thrillers disguised as R-rated horrormovies? Maybe people nowadays are too much a bunch of pussies to see a real horrormovie, but like to pretend they do?